The use of proteins and polypeptides in industrial products and processes requires large quantities of these biomolecules, in particular for clinical/diagnostic and pharmaceutical purposes. Whereas the required basic techniques such as isolation and purification of proteins in industrial quantities are mostly established, the most difficult aspect of the use of such biomolecules resides in maintenance for the envisioned application, of the desired native, or, active molecular properties. Particularly, in the storage and transport of biomolecules, losses in activity often have to be taken into account, whereby the success of later applications is put in risk. Commercially obtainable protein preparations therefore for the most part comprise compounds whose presence can minimize the activity loss during storage or transport. Furthermore, storage and transport is mostly carried out under low temperatures, although a freezing of, for example, particular proteins may be undesirable because of molecular changes.
It is known from the literature that particular plants and animals have developed mechanisms to survive in the state of approaching complete dehydration. This state of stress is referred to anhydrobiosis and is observed in organisms that are exposed to dry conditions. During anhydrobiosis, the organism finds itself in a kind of resting state until a rehydration allows normal metabolism to continue. Common characteristic property of these organisms is the synthesis of high concentrations of non-reducing sugars that is induced during anhydrobiotic conditions. The observed accumulation of large quantities of trehalose as a response to dehydration in various organisms leads to a protection of membranes and proteins from damage to their molecular integrity and correlates to a certain tolerance with respect to water removal. One assumes that the sugar replaces, or, as the case may be, functionally substitutes the removed water molecules and is involved in the formation of an intracellular organic glass by which, one assumes, the cell contents are stabilized.
In the state of the art, the use of trehalose in the production of antibody-coated microtiter plates is described in order to stabilize this normally very quickly denatureable protein species (V. K. Nguyen et al., Protection of immunoreactivity of dry immobilized proteins on microtitration plates in ELISA: application for detection of autoantibodies in Myasthenia gravis, J. of Biotechnology, 72, pp. 115 to 125 (1999)). In this case, microtiter plates having antibodies immobilized thereon are covered with a bovine serum albumin (BSA) and trehalose-containing film and are thereafter dried. The immobilized dried antibodies of the ELISA plates made in this manner showed a storage capability of up to thirty days even at increased temperatures (up to 50° C.).
An increase of the storage capability, particularly from a commercial viewpoint, at room temperature or even tropical conditions can, however, not be achieved with this technology. Particularly in connection with the preparation of large quantities of immobilized proteins, it is desirable to have a storage capability for a time period of over a year with substantially constant biological activity, or functionality of the biomolecule.
A further disadvantage of the above-described technology lies in the use of bovine serum albumin (BSA), a protein mixture of which it is known that, in the framework of antibody-aided applications, unspecific binding with antibodies results and thereby creates undesired cross reactions through which the entire experimental result is negatively influenced.
It is known, particularly from plant seeds and pollen that, in reaction to water removal, proteins of the LEA class are formed in them. (LEA=‘late embryogenesis abundant’) (J. Ingram and D. Bartels, Annu. Rev. Plant Physiol. Plant Mol. Biol., 47 pp. 377-403 (1996)). The LEA proteins also identified in nematodes, comprise a special, 11 amino acid motif, which presumably forms an amphipathic α-Helix through which the oligomerization of the protein is controlled. The LEA proteins are extremely hydrophilic and resistant to denaturation by heat. Initial experiments with a protein of this class purified from the pollen of Typha latifolia have shown that, in vitro, sucrose glasses can be stabilized by incubation with this protein. It is therefore suspected that non-reducing sugars and representatives of the protein class LEA work together in a synergistic manner in the formation of a stable bioglass in the cytoplasma of anhydrobiotic plants and in seeds and pollen being resistant to desiccation (J. Brown et al, Plant desiccation gene found in a nematode, Nature, 416, p. 38 (2002)).
An object of the present invention is therefore the provision of compositions and processes for stabilizing, or, as the case may be, preserving biomolecules, by which the disadvantages of the state of the art are overcome, and with which the desired biological activity of the molecules can be preserved, even without cooling, over a longer period of time.
The object is solved according to the present invention by the composition according to the main claim.